Before 2016, with two masters degrees under her belt, the art historian had worked as a researcher for traditional art dealers in Kensington and Chelsea for six years.

Consequently, the exuberance of her love for folk pieces might have come as a surprise to some, but for Kitty, the clues were always there.

“I’ve always been drawn to these very crude, wonky bits and pieces and, actually, looking back through my life there are so many hilarious little indicators that I would end up working in folk art,” said the 31-year-old Wapping resident who opened her specialist shop, Modern Folk, in 2016.

“I remember talking my dad into buying a pair of very crudely-carved 17th century angels once and an art dealer friend of ours saying something like, ‘Well I suppose they had to go somewhere’.”

She added: “As a teenager I used to earn pocket money by making Pinyatas for people so, age 13, I was vigorously researching Pinyata construction and reading books in Spanish about it.

“And, I mean, then there are the slippers. Twice in my life people I didn’t know very well had given me folk art slippers as a gift because I kept on banging on about them.

“So I think it was always there.”

Kitty Walsh, owner and director of Modern Folk. Credit: James Perrin

Today her passion for everyday works is evident. Her Bermondsey-based shop in Tower Bridge Road sells folk art in all its guises.

Top of the stock-list are her beloved slippers – three types from Poland – alongside Estonian knitwear, Romanian wedding chests, a Transylvanian cabinet, Hungarian Grain Bins (hollowed out trees as storage) and Norwegian jumpers.

“Folk art is just popular art made by people in the pre-industrialised era,” said Kitty, who studied at Cambridge and UCL.

“So it’s the things people have made to decorate their own homes, to embellish their own lives before industrialisation came along and made those things easier.

“I think any handmade decorative object can be considered folk art, particularly if it’s drawing on the traditions of a community.”

“So once somebody is making something in a way because their grandmother made it in that way, that’s very much folk art to me.”

Characterised by bold colours and natural motifs, the “bottom-up” aesthetic is not specific to an area of the world but was popularised in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Kitty, who initially spent time trawling eastern European flea markets to find her products said she was keen to fly the flag for the art form this side of the pond.

She said:

“People often think the pieces in my shop are from South America or Asia but they’re not, they’re European.

“And I think what that really says to me is that people all over the world, when presented with the same design problems, came up with the same solutions.

“So people all over the world who wanted to make something pretty, put flowers on it, or people all over the world who were trying to weave a bit of fabric, put a geometric design into it like stairs or stars.

“That’s all quite an organic and human thing, we’re all the same really.”

While she had already tested the waters with occasional folk art markets and Christmas pop-ups, the move to a physical shop in 2016 marked a change of heart for the trader.

“I really loved working with that traditional type of the market but I wanted to be selling things to people who were a bit more like me,” said Kitty, whose shop sells items ranging from £3-£900.

“So when I wanted to set up I was looking at moving away from the very top end of the market and I was looking for pieces I could get really interested in and passionate about but that I thought would be affordable, achievable and desirable for someone like me to have in their home.

“I was looking at the middle market and it was really dominated with mid-century and industrial looks.

“I like those looks, I’ve got a lot of mid-century stuff in my own home, but I do find those pieces can be a little bit soulless.

“I wanted to show people that there are other aesthetics out there that you could be buying.

“Quirkier pieces, pieces that had more narrative, authenticity and history attached to them but that weren’t necessarily your traditional boring brown Victorian furniture.”

This year, Kitty hopes to run more exhibitions with the help of a Romanian art historian who has recently joined the business.

Despite being one of a handful eastern European folk art stockists in England and the only specialist shop in Bermondsey, Kitty maintains that the art form has never been more relevant.

“We really are entering the age of the machine but I think there’s been a huge backlash against it,” she said.

Some of the pieces at Modern Folk. Credit: James Perrin

“So folk art really is very relevant at the moment because people are massively into making things themselves and the whole craft movement is absolutely part and parcel of what I’m talking about.”

Kitty, who also does stand-up specialising in art history under the guise of ‘Albrecht Dürer: Renaissance Dude’, even has a name for the new-age movement.

“There’s this folk-y stream to hipster culture at the moment,” she said.